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Any way to force Safari to open desktop version rather than the mobile of a website?

F

fsshariq

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
49
0
In a Jar
Hi all,

So I've been using my wife's iPad here and there while I wait for mine to come in. One thing thats throwing me off a bit is that when I visit webpages such as Gizmodo, iO9 and MMAFighting, Safari always pulls up the mobile version of the webpage and unfortunately, none of the above sites have a link on the mobile page to change to the desktop version of the website. I am wondering if there is any way to force Safari to open desktop version of a webpage rather than the mobile version. It's really annoying and I can't find a way around it aside from perhaps trying a new browser.

Thanks and any help will be appreciated!
 
R

Rigby

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2008
6,222
10,168
San Jose, CA
I don't think there's a way with Safari. With alternative browsers like iCab or Atomic, you can change the browser ID to that of a desktop browser to solve that problem.
 
F

fsshariq

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
49
0
In a Jar
features such as this should be incorporated within the native browser, considering it is a tablet. Even Blackberries have such an option for years now.
 
A

aicul

macrumors 6502a
Jun 20, 2007
809
7
no cars, only boats
Don't want to spoil the discussion fun, but I fail to see the use of bypassing a web experience that was specifically designed for the device being used.

I mean, if a website is adapted to, say, and iPhone, why would one want to see the normal imac website when using the iPhone ?

Assume of course, that the dedicated device website allows me to do the same things.
 
C

crazycanucks

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2010
197
0
aicul said:
Don't want to spoil the discussion fun, but I fail to see the use of bypassing a web experience that was specifically designed for the device being used.

I mean, if a website is adapted to, say, and iPhone, why would one want to see the normal imac website when using the iPhone ?

Assume of course, that the dedicated device website allows me to do the same things.
Click to expand...

Try viewing message board on the mobile version. It is super limiting. try it with this site!
 
R

Rigby

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2008
6,222
10,168
San Jose, CA
aicul said:
Don't want to spoil the discussion fun, but I fail to see the use of bypassing a web experience that was specifically designed for the device being used.
Click to expand...
Very simple: There are quite a few sites out there that do not properly recognize the device being used. Many seem to switch to the phone version of the site if they see "Mobile" in the user agent string. But usually the full site is much more suitable for the iPad with its large screen.
 
A

Ashwood11

macrumors 65816
Nov 10, 2010
1,153
0
US
It may be that web sites detect the operating system and not the device. Since the phone and pad both use the same operating system there may be a problem. I don't mind using the non mobile with the iPad.
 
maclaptop

maclaptop

macrumors 65816
Apr 8, 2011
1,453
0
Western Hemisphere
I could not agree more.

Getting stuck viewing the mobile site is bad enough on my iPhone, but on my iPad it's really bad. A device with a display the size of an iPad should default to the full web page, not the mobile one.

I'm surprised that more people do not complain. However I believe that many who buy iPads are new users and not very computer savvy, so they simply don't know any better.
 
R

Rigby

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2008
6,222
10,168
San Jose, CA
Ashwood11 said:
It may be that web sites detect the operating system and not the device. Since the phone and pad both use the same operating system there may be a problem. I don't mind using the non mobile with the iPad.
Click to expand...
It depends on the web page programmer. It is possible to keep iPad and iPhone apart by looking at the browser ID, but many sites don't do it properly. Here are the user agent strings used by Safari:

iPhone: "Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5"

iPad: "Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5"

This will become more and more difficult for the web sites as more mobile devices with different properties (not just from Apple) are entering the market.
 
maclaptop

maclaptop

macrumors 65816
Apr 8, 2011
1,453
0
Western Hemisphere
Rigby said:
It depends on the web page programmer. It is possible to keep iPad and iPhone apart by looking at the browser ID, but many sites don't do it properly. Here are the user agent strings used by Safari:

iPhone: "Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5"

iPad: "Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5"

This will become more and more difficult for the web sites as more mobile devices with different properties (not just from Apple) are entering the market.
Click to expand...

Thank You ! :)
 
F

fsshariq

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
49
0
In a Jar
aicul said:
Don't want to spoil the discussion fun, but I fail to see the use of bypassing a web experience that was specifically designed for the device being used.

I mean, if a website is adapted to, say, and iPhone, why would one want to see the normal imac website when using the iPhone ?

Assume of course, that the dedicated device website allows me to do the same things.
Click to expand...

I understand that certain sites have multiple versions geared towards different experiences. A good example of this is Yahoo. They have 3 versions that I've seen: mobile, tablet, and desktop. Each gives you an experience that complements the type of device you are using but not all websites are designed this way. The iPad has a big screen that enables one to view and consume more content than a mobile phone and Desktop version of web pages look just fine on it. It is highly annoying when I am sitting back and trying to go to certain webpages that I check frequently and being stuck on the mobile version on the page. If you have time, simply go to mmafighting.com or gizmodo.com on you iPad and then on your desktop and you'll understand what I mean. Also, not all mobile sites offer the same utilities as the desktop version. It further hurts the experience as one tries to consume content from a device that can easily handle all that the website has to offer.
 
F

fenskezen

macrumors regular
Feb 6, 2011
152
5
I think it's the web developer/page itself. I have an iphone 4...If I click on the app for ebay, I get the mobil app. If I type in my safari browser "www.ebay.com" , I get the full out website ( desktop ) . Same with my local newspaper site. However, no matter what I do with this site, MacRumors, I get the mobile version. Seems web site specific not an Apple thing.
 
F

fsshariq

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
49
0
In a Jar
Yea I am not blaming everything on Apple, I was just saying that there should be some sort of an option that enables us to change the way the browser identifies itself to the webpage. I am not this is not very difficult to implement since RIM has been doing it for quite some time now. Aside from this, we can only hope that web developers start carefully considering all types of devices that may access their webpages.
 
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